Andrew Mantzios saw a woman run by the gunman and stumble. He turned and shot her two or three times as she lay on the ground

Police are shown at the perimeter of the scene of a shooting in east Toronto, on Monday, July 23, 2018. Police were trying Monday to determine what prompted a 29-year-old man to go on a shooting rampage in a popular Toronto neighbourhood, killing two people and injuring 12 others.Christopher Katsarov / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Two people were killed and 12 others were injured when a man armed with a handgun fired into restaurants and patios in the popular Toronto neighbourhood known as Greektown on Sunday night. Ontario’s police watchdog said the 29-year-old suspected gunman, whose identity has not been released, moved down Danforth Avenue, spraying bullets along the way. The Special Investigations Unit said the man later exchanged gunfire with police officers and was eventually found dead in the area. Police have not released information about the victims. On an average summer night, the sidewalks spill out with kids and their parents, teens on dates, walking awkwardly hand-in-hand, and the attack has left Greektown residents questioning why their neighbourhood was the scene of the mass shooting. The National Post spoke to witnesses and local residents about the shooting and its aftermath.

Still from a video circulated on social media shows a man clad in black walking down the street before turning and firing his handgun into a local business.@ArielAnise /
The Canadian Press

Andrew Mantzios was just saying goodbye to his friends at the fountain on the north side of the Danforth near Logan Avenue when he saw a man in a dark baseball hat approaching from nearby. “I’d stopped for a coffee and I was going I pick up my car and all of a sudden he just started shooting,” Mantzios said. The man fired several shots at a cluster of people waiting to cross Danforth on the sidewalk, Mantzios said. He then turned and fired into the gyros shop and cafe next to the fountain. “He has this look in his face full of hate — he was trying to kill people — like a dog baring his teeth.” Mantzios saw a woman run by the man and stumble. The man stopped firing, turned and shot the woman two or three times as she lay on the ground. “He went back and finished her off,” Mantzios said. He described it as an execution. “Obviously he wanted to do the most damage, kill as many people as he could,” Mantzios said. After he shot the woman, he walked back to the corner shooting. Mantzios said the man crossed to the south side of Danforth, fired several shots, reloaded, then crossed the street again and fired into Demetre’s restaurant. He appeared to reload again before carrying on West down the street. “The woman who died on the scene, she was shot in front of my eyes,” he said.

A police officer escorts a civilian away from the scene of a mass casualty event in Toronto on Sunday, July 22, 2018.Christopher Katsarov /
THE CANADIAN PRESS

Greg Stock remembers the exact minute it happened. It was 9:56, four minutes before the nightly news. He had just enough time for a smoke before The National. Stock lives in an apartment above the Second Cup on Danforth near Chester Avenue in Toronto’s east end. He was outside on the fire escape — he has just lit up — when he heard it. Four shots in two bursts. Boom, boom! Boom, boom! Stock’s first thought was that it was a gang shooting. He ran down into the side street and across into the church yard next door. He was looking for victims, he said. Then he heard another two shots, and he bolted. “I ran for my f——ing life,” he said. Stock never saw the shooter. He passed west-bound on Danforth as Stock was running the other way, behind his apartment. As he raced back to his apartment, he passed his neighbour, who was outside, oblivious. “He was out back having a smoke,” Stock said. He had his headphones on and his eyes down and he hadn’t heard a thing.

Percy Fuchs said he was at a nearby A&W last night when shots rang out: “at least 7 or 8, I stopped counting. I didn’t see anything, I just heard it,” he said. “You could hear the shots and then everybody started showing up.”

Howard Lichtman was in obvious shock at what had transpired. “If you had to pick a place where it wasn’t going to happen, it would be the Danforth” he said. “You want to know who he is and what was his reason. Who kills people on the Danforth? It’s the place you least expect it to happen. We’ve been hearing about gun play all summer. Why is this happening? What do we do about it?”

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders and Mayor John Tory speak following last night’s mass casualty downtown Toronto. Tory later called incident ‘despicable’ on Twitter and wrote that police are investigating the incident for further information.Christopher Katsarov /
THE CANADIAN PRESS

Police are telling business owners they don’t know what time they’ll be allowed to open. “It’s the SIU’s investigation,” one officer told a store owner at the south corner of Hampton and Broadview. “What happened,” the woman’s daughter, who looked about six, asked the officer. “I’ll let your mom answer,” she replied.

Jamie Voskuil ran to his basement just after 10 p.m. He called to his child, said he heard gunshots then went to his garage that backs onto a laneway just south of Danforth Avenue, near Bowden Street. He said he grabbed a baseball bat and “opened the door like an idiot.” As the garage door lurched open, Voskuil saw a wave of police officers running past with flashlights and guns drawn. It looked like they were chasing the gunman, he said. He closed the door. “It’s like, ‘Holy cow, I shouldn’t have opened it up.’” But he could still watch through a window in the garage door as more and more police ran by. “You saw cops with dogs, cops with rifles.”

Police are photographed at the perimeter of the scene of a mass shooting in Toronto on Monday, July 23, 2018.Christopher Katsarov /
THE CANADIAN PRESS

Rajh Judickson was in the kitchen at Fox and Fiddle on Danforth near Carlaw, making a chicken parmesan with spaghetti and garlic bread when a waitress came to the dish pit to say there was a shooting. He thought he heard around 10 shots. Three or four minutes later, he heard another blast of three shots then a pause, then another two shots. From the patio, Judickson watched hoards of people running and screaming east down the sidewalk. Confused motorists were passing by, watching the chaos with no idea what was happening. People were lying on the ground, trying to stay clear of the gunfire. “They were covering their face. Some people were closing their ears,” he said. Judickson saw a couple run by, holding hands with their two young children, a boy and a girl who both looked under five. “I can see from their eyes, almost tears,” he said. “They were scared, shaking.” He could hear the parents trying to keep them calm:“Everything is OK, honey.”